[1] Because President Calvin Coolidge had announced unexpectedly he would not run for re-election in 1928, Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover became the natural front-runner for the Republican nomination.

Former Illinois Governor Frank Lowden and Kansas Senator Charles Curtis were candidates for the nomination but stood no chance against the popular and accomplished Hoover.

Chicago Mayor William Hale Thompson considered himself a candidate, but without the support of Ruth Hanna McCormick, his candidacy was unsuccessful.

In his acceptance speech, Hoover said, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty ever before in the history of any land."

Hoover's forces won an early victory by securing adoption of an agricultural plank which endorsed President Coolidge's position on the question and rejected all principles of the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill.

Former Governor Lowden caused a sensation by announcing that since the agricultural plank was unsatisfactory, he withdrew from consideration as presidential nominee.

Coolidge remained silent, refusing to tell even the delegation from the president's home state of Vermont whether to support the draft.

[5] After Hoover won the presidential nomination, Moses, Illinois Senator Charles S. Deneen, and former Massachusetts Governor Channing Cox were named as the most likely vice-presidential nominees, with a re-nomination for Dawes also a possibility.